


Patty: The One Who Broke Me & How I Rebuilt Myself

by idinathoreau



Series: My Childhood Would Have Been SOOO Different With You In It [1]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/F, F/M, abby & erin friendship, basically just a lot of flirting and these idiots need to get a clue, platonic otherwise, pre-Holtzbert, pre-movie relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-30 00:02:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8511013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idinathoreau/pseuds/idinathoreau
Summary: Patty tells her tale of growing up in New York.





	1. Blackout in Brooklyn Heights

On nights when ghost busts were absent and Kevin took the night off to practice with his hide-and-seek team, the ladies of the Ghostbusters had a tradition.

However unintentionally, it was Abby who started it. She had a bad habit of solitary drinking in college, broken only when she could convince the beer-hating Erin to join her. Since their reunion, Erin had taken to sitting down with her anytime she spotted Abby trying to slip away with a beer in hand. Ever since they’d come back through the portal, she’d been making more of an effort to make gestures of companionship, as if to make up for the years she had been missing from her life. Abby hadn’t said a word but she had started gravitating towards the communal table on the third floor of the firehouse whenever she went to drink, expecting Erin to join her. Patty was soon lugging a six-pack up there to the kitchen area and joining them, prompting boisterous laughter and easy conversation from the team that filtered down into Holtzmann’s lab. Soon enough, the engineer was joining their impromptu drinking night, often bringing whatever she was tinkering on right into the middle of the table.

Tonight was one such night. The four ladies had assembled without prior agreement, Patty supplying two full six-packs of the cheapest beer from the corner store. Holtz had forgone whatever she was tinkering with in favor of poking and messily braiding Erin’s hair. The physicist had seemed annoyed at first but her complaints and gentle batting away of Holtzmann’s hands had petered out quickly with the engineer’s nimble fingers manipulating her hair and massaging her scalp. 

Abby and Patty exchanged a look but said nothing. They had an unspoken agreement to let those two figure things out on their own. 

In an effort to avoid watching Erin blush as Holtz’s hand ‘accidentally’ grazed her cheek, Abby turned to Patty. “So Patty, what part of New York did you grown up in?”

“Brooklyn.” Patty replied proudly. “Born and raised.”

“Really?” Abby seemed perplexed. “You always gave off more of a Bronx vibe to me.”

“Imma pretend you meant that as a compliment and say thank you.” Patty snarked back. 

“What was growing up here like?” Erin asked, finally pulling her attention away from the engineer and taking a sip from her beer. 

“Was none of y’all from here?” Patty asked, her forehead creased in thought. “I mean,” she gestured at Abby and Erin, “I knew y’all was from the middle-of-nowhere Michigan…”

“Battle Creek.” Erin supplied. “Not really middle-of-nowhere, more like middle-of-south-central…”

“…but Holtzy?” Patty asked, turning to the engineer. “You didn’t grow up here?”

“Well I’m flattered you think I have a New York vibe…” Holtzmann said, leaning back and propping her feet up on the table (Erin pouting almost discreetly about the loss of contact). “No, I hail from middle-of-butt-fuck-nowhere-central-Mass.”

Patty raised an eyebrow. “Really? Massachusetts?” Even Abby seemed surprised. 

Holtz grinned, her blue eyes startling without her glasses. “It’s the New Englander’s curse: everyone thinks we’re from New York and we can’t stand the place. When I was a child, we had ‘Yankees Suck’ days in school…”

“Anyway…” Patty continued, turning back to Erin. “My childhood was the typical New York experience I guess…I never told y’all about it?”

“Nope.” Abby supplied, shaking her head. “You guys heard all about how Erin and I met but we didn’t hear a thing about you.”

“We may have to revoke your club membership.” Holtz joked, “But only if we find out you were secretly a member of a prep school gang.”

Patty shot the engineer a look while Erin stifled a giggle behind her hand. 

“Okay, well I’ll just have to tell you a good story then.” Patty took a final swig of her beer then tapped her chin with the empty bottle.

“Let me see… I don’t have any childhood trauma stories about seeing ghosts…” She smirked at Abby and Erin. “Ooh! I know! How about I tell y’all about the time that I got my ex-boyfriend expelled?”

Holtz seemed intrigued. Her eyes widened comically. “Whhhaaat?”

Abby’s eyebrows shot up and Erin looked a little confused. 

Patty smirked but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah..it’s…kind of the worst moment of my life…but it has a happy ending, I swear!”

Erin and Abby exchanged a look. “Alright then, let’s have it.”

Holtzmann grinned, popping her glasses down over her eyes. “I love a good revenge plot.”

“Remind me never to cross you, Holtzy.” Patty said, patting the engineer’s curls. Holtz smirked.

Patty cracked open a new beer, taking a long slug before beginning her story. “Right, so this was back in…gosh I guess it must have been ’91…”  
***  
Patty had lived in New York all her life. Specifically, the west side of Brooklyn where you either had it or you pretended to have it to avoid getting beat up. With her scrawny limbs, Patty wasn’t much in a fight. But she talked a tough game and had a snappy attitude. That kept her out of a lot of the trouble to be had.

Patty’s family was huge: her and her parents, siblings, two uncles and 10 cousins all sharing a two-family apartment on Willow Street. They weren’t poor, just tight-knit. Patty was one of the older of the children of the Tolan family and often had to go out of her way to help out her cousins. Family came first among the New York Tolans.

She didn’t care much for school, not for the academic rigors of the classroom or the dumb popularity contests between girls her age. What she was interested in was a boy. 

By the time she was fifteen, puberty had granted her unexpected confidence and she had her sights set on John McKenzie, the muscular, senior heartthrob of PS 136. On the day she wore her first v-neck shirt, he swaggered right up to her and asked her out. 

She had never felt so pretty before.

“What’s got you so happy?”

Patty blinked, coming back to the present. She’d been daydreaming about John’s muscles. He had such strong biceps from football…

“Patty?”

Patty turned to her cousin, trying not to sound irritated. “What did you say, Marcy?” They were sitting together at a lunch table in the school’s only courtyard.

Her younger cousin rolled her eyes. “I said: what’s got you so happy?” She asked. She took a bite of her sandwich. “You’ve been staring blissfully at the wall for about 5 minutes now.”

Patty tried to shrug nonchalantly but her grin betrayed her. “Just thinkin about our trip to the UN next month.”

“Bullshit.” Marcy said, startling Patty. Her cousin never cursed, unless she was really crabby. Marcy took another bite of her sandwich. “Who is he?”

“Who’s who now?”

“Patty…” Marcy implored, now sounding indignant. “You look like Angie did just before her third date with Charlie.”

“Yeah, but I aint pining that bad.”

“I think you are.” 

Patty made a face at Marcy and popped open her bag of chips. It really annoyed her sometimes that her thirteen-year-old cousin was so smart. Most of her family was content to just let her do whatever without interfering. Marcy though? She was always sticking her nose in and giving Patty advice she didn’t ask for. 

“Look Marcy,” Patty began. “Ain’t I allowed to be happy without…” Whatever she was going to say went right out the window as a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. It was John.

“Hey babe.” He drawled in that husky monotone he had. Patty felt a goofy smile spread across her face. “Does Friday work?”

“Does..?OH! Yeah, yeah. F…friday is great!” Patty stammered. “Works for me John!”

“Awesome.” He smiled down at her. “I’ll pick you up at 6.” 

Without even looking at Marcy, he turned and left, rejoining his football buddies by the stairs. 

“John McKenzie?!” Marcy nearly shouted as soon as he was gone. “Really, Patty?”

Patty stopped staring to glare at her cousin. “Yeah, what of it?”

“Didn’t you hear about what happened to Shona?” Marcy asked, whispering furiously.

Patty waved a hand. “That’s just rumors, Marcy. Besides, you know Shona’s desperate for any kind of attention. She probably just made it up.”

“But Patty, listen..”

“No Marcy, you listen.” Patty snapped, her temper flaring. She stood up. “I don’t need to take relationship advice from you. Stay out of this.”

Turning on her heel, Patty left Marcy alone at the table. 

“Patty? Patty!”

Patty stormed back inside. She was going out with John. And no vague rumors or meddling cousins were going to stop her.  
***  
The first date went very well. John was a perfect gentleman, meeting her right on time and taking her over to Manhattan for pizza and a walk through Times Square. Patty had been there before of course but there was something different about going with John rather than with her extended family. It felt more open, like the world was opening up before her. When John kissed her under the entrance to M&M World, she was a little underwhelmed. Was kissing supposed to taste so bad? But it was a fine kiss otherwise.

The next day, he’d slipped a note into her locker. Reading it made her heart palpitate. But her mind was made up.  
***  
Patty had never done anything quite this daring. Traveling around the city after dark was nothing new, she’d been doing that since she was 10. But sneaking out? That was new territory. And with close to 20 other people in the house, she had to be very careful how she moved about.

Luckily, everyone slept pretty soundly, even the very suspicious Marcy. Patty slipped down the fire escape of their building and jumped down to the street. Then, smiling at her victory, she ran off to meet up with John.

His note had been brief but laced with meaning. He wanted to see her after dark, alone. On the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. 

She made it in record time. 

The Brooklyn Heights Promenade was a rare New York place where both tourist and local alike could gather and take in New York. At this late hour though, it was mostly abandoned: the shops were closed and all the walkers along the Promenade tended to be of the less desirable sort. Patty was nervous making her way along alone but she reasoned that she’d be safe from any unsavory people once she got to John.

He was waiting for her just outside of a closed high-end restaurant, leaning against the large windows. A lit cigarette was dangling from his lips. 

His mouth turned up in a smirk when he saw her. “You came.” It sounded like he was amused. 

“Of course I came.” Patty replied, sidling up to him and pecking him on the cheek. “You asked me to.”

John laughed. “Yeah, yeah I did. And you came.”

He pulled her away from the window, tugging her by the arm until they were in the shadows along the side of the restaurant. 

“I’m really glad you came baby.” He said, giving her a look like no one else in the world mattered. He flicked away his spent cigarette and plucked a new one from his pocket. He lit it with a small green lighter and took a long pull.

The whole time he did this, he eyed Patty appreciatively. Then he held out the cigarette for her. 

Patty shook her head adamantly but he just gave her that look again. 

“Come on baby, try it.” He looked so handsome in the dim alleyway lights. “It’s just you and me here baby, no one else.”

Patty took the cigarette, holding it uneasily in her fingers. Slowly, she brought it to her lips and took a hesitant pull. Fire ripped into her lungs. She coughed violently, spitting it out.

John went chasing after it, chuckling. “Whoa babe! That’s a perfectly good smoke, don’t waste it!” He re-lit the cigarette and took a long drag from it. He offered it to her again.

Patty shook her head, her chest still burned from the first pull.

“Try again, babe.” John urged her, his smile becoming even more charming. “it gets easier with time.”

The rest of the night passed in a haze. Patty remembered John laughing as she tried to smoke the cigarette again. She remembered the feel of his hand creeping up her thigh, his tongue pushing down her throat with an ashy aftertaste. She might have tried to pull away, she recalled pushing him at some point. But he just came right back, crawling on top of her, those muscles holding her down…

When the haze cleared, she was a mess.


	2. The Shining Salvation of Manhattan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to forget what has happened to her, Patty takes comfort in the streets of New York.

For sometime after that night, Patty didn’t go to school. She came up with excuses: someone had to look after grandma, a pipe had burst at school so she couldn’t go, her stomach hurt (that last one was true). After stumbling home at dawn disoriented and bleeding slightly, she’d finally felt the weight of everything crash on her. 

Had he really? And she had just…?

She’d run to the bathroom and thrown up. 

After feeling like she’d expelled everything she’d eaten in the last week, she’d snuck into her cousin Angie’s room and pilfered a few pills out of her underwear drawer. She knew what they were for. She just had never expected to need them. She took them for the next week, even though they made her feel even worse than she had that first morning. Whether by dumb luck or pill-popping though, she didn’t get pregnant. 

When she ran out of excuses to stay home, she started playing hooky. It wasn’t difficult. There were plenty of places for her to run off to in the city. Her days were filled with riding the trains, wandering through the streets and old buildings of New York. She always went alone.

She slipped through the turnstiles and onto crowded subway cars and rode those until someone became suspicious. For the most part though, she tried to stay under the radar. 

Men looked at her different now, like they could see the changes in her face and body. She began wearing looser jeans and heavy sweaters, covering up her breasts and hips. She didn’t want them looking. She didn’t want them thinking about her body like that, like something they were entitled to.

There were a few instances where she had to duck away from the police. But it was surprisingly easy. New York City was full of secret passages and hidey-holes. You just had to know where to go.

Which was how Patty came to find herself in the Mid-Manhattan New York Public Library one afternoon, reading up on the history of gangs in the city. Not for school or for some morbid curiosity about the bad parts of New York. Simply for a better understanding of how the routes and tunnels used by these gangs worked. 

She pulled down book after book, spending most of the day immersed in the fascinating history. It was only well after school hours that she finally set her books aside and left. 

Despite the trauma she had experienced, New York after dark held no particular terror for her. This was her city. She knew exactly what streets to avoid and where she could lose stalkers in the winding alleys and cross streets. Patty took a turn across 5th Avenue and stepped into Bryant Park. The shady folks were starting to crawl out into the space as the daylight faded but Patty kept her head up. Thanks to all her reading and wanderings, she knew that most of them were just drug dealers looking to make a few bucks. Dressed as she was, nothing about her spoke of her comfortable life in Brooklyn. They wouldn’t bother her. 

Patty left the park behind and continued out to 8th Avenue, where the tourists and the rich were lining up outside of the theatres to indulge in the culture of the city. She doubted any of them cared to know about the fact that the Stephen Sondheim Theatre had once been an old supermarket. 

She continued walking, fast approaching Times Square now, in all its colorful, crowded glory. Everything here spoke to her in a way subjects like science and math never had. The buildings were soaked in history and the streets laid in legends: from the Daily News Building in Manhattan to Duke Ellington’s house in Queens. Stories dripped from every archway and clung to the beams and paving stones. 

While her own life roiled around her, Patty found comfort in things like this. In the shining towers of Manhattan, steeped in the history and culture of New York. In the diverse vistas of Queens, where she could peruse art museums or sneak into sports arenas. Even the Bronx had its own particular charm. 

Patty shuddered as a cold wind whipped through Times Square. Thoughts of that night on the Promenade stole upon her, making her cringe and tighten up. Every time she remembered how he had touched her…how he had held her down…

She shook her head violently. That was in the past. She may not be smart enough to excel in school or strong enough to fight off people like John but she didn’t have to be like this. New York was distraction enough.

But fortunately for her, her distractions would prove to be what saved not only her life but Marcy’s life as well.

Just as she left the beautiful mess of the Square behind for the darker alleyways, someone grabbed her arm. On instinct, she turned and twisted, panic engulfing her as thoughts of that night ran unchecked through her mind… 

“Patty! Patty! It’s me!”

Startled and now thoroughly confused, Patty stared at her cousin. “Marcy! What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to find you!” Her intrepid young cousin was dressed in jeans and a tight-fitting top, wearing black sneakers and a scowl that dripped with stubbornness. “I’ve been looking for you all week!”

“Marcy…” The implications of her cousin’s words hit her and she blinked, dread pooling in her gut. “Have you been wandering around the city alone looking for me?”

Marcy stuck her chin out. “Yes.”

“Marcy, that’s dangerous! You need to go home, right now!”

“But Patty! I’m worried!”

Patty was about to reprimand her cousin when someone else entered the alley. She froze, her cousin still rambling on.

“You haven’t been at school for the past two weeks and don’t think people haven’t noticed!”

Patty swallowed hard. The man was large and intimidating, bristling with anger and contempt. She had seen men like him before. She knew what they did. 

Marcy still hadn’t noticed their company. Perhaps she couldn’t. To her, he was just another man among millions in the city.

“The only reason your mom and dad don’t know is because I’ve been intercepting the phone calls the principle keeps making!”

The man was walking towards them, a slimy leer defining his face. Patty felt her blood go cold. 

Her hand closed over Marcy’s wrist. Deaf to her cousin’s protests, Patty ran, pulling Marcy behind her. The route was rooted in her memory from her weeks of wandering: through the alley, squeeze through the kitchen of the Italian Restaurant on 48th, down the stairs into the subway…

She ran, not even looking back to see if they had lost their stalker. She just needed to keep Marcy safe. Marcy was not going to suffer the same pain that she had. 

They ducked and wove through the evening commuters on the platform; using their size to slip onto the first train they found waiting. 

Only once they were moving and there was no sign of the man inside their car did Patty slump against the bar, breathing heavily. 

“Patty…that…that was incredible!”

Collecting herself, Patty looked up. Marcy was staring at her, completely awestruck. Patty was astounded, she’d never managed to impress her cousin before.

“Yeah?” She shifted unsteadily, her knees feeling weak. 

Marcy nodded intently, either not realizing or completely unaffected by the terror they had just escaped. “Yeah! How’d you know we could go that way?”

“I…I’ve been around these past few weeks.” Patty admitted. 

Marcy’s face fell slightly. “Really? This is what you’ve been doing?”

Patty nodded. She now realized she’d been running away. All this time she’d been avoiding her trauma. 

Marcy took her hand, speaking far more softly than Patty had ever heard her before. “Patty…everyone’s worried. Please come back to school?”

Patty bit her lip. “I…” An hour ago, she would have said she wasn’t ready. But now, with this fresh victory pumping through her veins, she felt invincible. She had just saved herself and her cousin with nothing more than her knowledge. She felt like she had a purpose, a secret weapon at her disposal everywhere she went, hiding in the crevices and layered history of the city.

And with such a weapon at her disposal, she no longer needed to fear the likes of John McKenzie. It was time to stop running.

Marcy was looking at her expectantly, still waiting for an answer. “Will you come back to school?” She prodded. 

Patty swallowed hard, then nodded. “…yeah…yeah.” An idea struck her and she smiled conspiratorially. “But I gotta do something first.”

***

Returning to school was tough. But street life had toughened Patty up considerably. No matter how the others stared, she lifted her chin, swayed her hips and strutted. With her large earrings, tight jeans and flowing blouse leaving her looks on full display, she was not ashamed. Her confidence this time came not just from her beauty, but from the hidden depths of knowledge she had acquired. 

The look on John’s face had been priceless.

He sidled up to her after her history class when she was weighed down with assignments that she needed to make up. She tried not to flinch as he slid his arm around her, squeezing her butt possessively.

“Hey baby.” He drawled, his ashy breath ghosting over her face. “Where’ve you been?”

Ignoring the bile welling up in her throat, Patty only flirted back, promising him she’d see him later and pecking him on the cheek as she left. 

Marcy looked at her like she was crazy but Patty only winked. She had a plan. Mr. John McKenzie was going to get his comeuppance, Patty-style.


	3. Sweet Revenge on Roosevelt Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Patty enacts her revenge.

The next week was their school trip to the UN. It was a rare treat for the students, organized by a social studies department that was determined to make their students remember that World War II had been good for something after all: international cooperation. 

It also helped that the UN building was only a short train ride away. 

With her newfound love of all things New York, Patty was in heaven as she walked through the halls of the Visitor’s Center. She was trying desperately to hang on to every word the tour guide was saying but her mind kept wandering. She was on a mission. If all went well, after today she would be well and truly rid of John McKenzie. 

He’d been annoyingly clingy since she’d returned to school but not in a cute kind of way. Rather he seemed to go out of his way to squeeze her butt or kiss her sloppily at inopportune times. Even today he’d already tried to slide his arm around her twice. She considered herself lucky to have avoided more action with him since. 

Patty had taken a rare moment of John ignoring her to instead focus on a passing group of delegates to slip away. When she returned, she made sure to slide back in right next to him.

John slid his arm around her immediately, squeezing her breast painfully. “Baby where’d you go?”

“Just to the bathroom.” Patty replied, pushing the marker deeper into her pants pocket as discretely as she could. “Why, did you miss me?”

John smirked at her in that sickeningly lecherous way of his. “I always miss you, baby.” He leaned in to try to kiss her but Patty ducked her head, as if shy.

“Baby, come on.” John protested, pulling her aside and lowering his voice. “No one’ll miss us if we duck away. I’ve been dying for some action and you’ve been away.”

He tried to lean in again but Patty covered his mouth. “Not here…” Patty took his hand, ignoring the excited look in John’s eyes. “Let’s find somewhere more private…”

She tugged him down the halls, all her research on the UN Visitor’s Center paying off spectacularly as she managed to get them down two flights of stairs and halfway across the building undetected. Opening the door of a small supply closet, Patty pushed John inside.

“A closet? Wow, nice find babe.”

Patty shushed him, pushing him in further so she could slip in and close the door. 

John raised an eyebrow at her, most of his face hidden in the dark. “I like the way you think, babe.” He stuck his tongue down her throat not three seconds later and Patty tried her best to keep from retching. They shifted around in the confined space, knocking over something that sounded like a broom. John pushed her up against the wall, his hands starting to grope at her chest.

He kept trying to climb on top of her but the closet wasn’t big enough. Patty focused instead on keeping her hands wandering over the back of his baggy jeans. While she made out with him, she mapped out where they were in her head to keep herself from struggling too much. 

The UN was a pretty well protected, but like any building, it had its crawl-spaces and echo chambers. With a few looks at the original building blueprints and a book on the architect, Patty had deduced that this particular closet (a closet that just happened to be adjacent to the UN General Assembly Hall) was in the perfect spot. If two people wanted to get caught.

It only took about 5 minutes after they started making out for the door to the closet to finally burst open. When it did, Patty thanked her lucky stars; she was having enough trouble keeping John’s grimy hands out of her pants, jeez that boy was wriggly.

A heavyset, angry-looking guard shined his flashlight on them. “What’re you doin’ there kids?”

Relieved, Patty scrambled away from John. “Oh god! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” She had to struggle to keep her glee from leaking into her voice. She straightened her clothes and tried to look chastened. 

John got up more slowly, giving the guard a lopsided grin that was clearly meant in camaraderie. The guard did not look amused. 

“Where’s your group?” The guard asked tugging John out of the closet by his elbow. 

“We were with the PS 136 group.” Patty supplied helpfully as John shrugged the guard off. 

At that moment, as if by design, one of their chaperones, Mrs. Rhymes and about half of the visiting students (including Marcy) rounded the corner. There were several minutes of confusion, during which Patty tried to seem as embarrassed as possible. But she was waiting. Finally, her plotting paid off.

“What’s this?” The guard held up a marker. A marker he’d just pulled from John’s back pocket. 

John shrugged nonchalantly. “A marker? What does it look like?” He didn’t question how it had ended up in his pocket.

“You think this is funny kid?” The guard asked, shaking John slightly. “You think you can deface the halls of the UN with your graffiti and then make out with your girlfriend in a closet? Do you know what the punishment is for vandalizing government property?”

John lost some of his cool disinterest. “What are you talkin’ about man?”

The guard fingered his radio, calling for back-up. 

“I think you know what kid.” He said, grabbing John by the arm. “Did you really think you would get away with a stunt like that in the UN of all places?”

John tried to struggle free, now looking alarmed. “What are you talking about man?” He asked again.

More security rounded the corner, another guard grabbing John’s free arm. 

“This the guy?” The new guard asked.

“I found a marker in his pocket.” The first guard responded. “He’s our guy.” He glared at John. “You wrote that garbage on the walls of the Security Hall. ‘Gotta get me that big booty?’ Really?”

John snickered in spite of himself and that sealed his fate. His face morphed into terror as the guards tightened their grip. “What? No! No, it wasn’t me!” John was full-on panicking now. “My girl could vouch for me!” John cried desperately. He tried to jerk himself out of security’s grip but they held him fast. 

“Patsy! Patsy!” He cried, turning his head. After some looking around, he spotted Patty in the crowd. “Tell um baby! Tell um I didn’t do it!”

Patty only smiled. “Sorry honey. PATTY don’t hang out with delinquents.”

Completely dumbfounded, John was dragged away. Slowly, the teachers began to reassemble their students, muttering something about delinquents and paperwork.

After a stern talking to from Mrs. Rhymes about educational priorities coming before romantic ones (during which Patty was sure to look appropriately chastened) Marcy slid up next to Patty, nudging her gently in the side. 

“Some luck.” She commented. “That graffiti looked really bad.”

“Some luck indeed.” Patty agreed, unable to stop smiling.

Marcy glanced around and lowered her voice. “Soooo…I shouldn’t mention that the message totally looks like your handwriting, right?”

“Right.”

***

When Patty finished her story, Abby looked mad as hell.

“That little sonofabitch!” She exploded as Patty finished. “I hope he still lives in New York cause I’d love to pay him a visit and see how he likes a little blast from my proton glove!”

She leapt up, stalking over to the weapons rack and snatching her glove off the wall. She brandished it in the air. “Let me at ‘im!”

Surprised and a little flattered, Patty laughed. “Abby! Abby! It’s cool. He moved to Jersey like ten years ago…they didn’t press charges cause he was a minor and the graffiti washed right off.”

Erin and Holtz were laughing but Abby didn’t look at all ashamed. “Good. He gets to live then.” Still bristling, Abby put her glove down and sat back down at the table.

“But thanks, Abs.” Patty continued. “It means a lot to me that you’d have been there to defend me.”

All three of the remaining Ghostbusters turned to her. “Of course.” Erin said, lifting her chin. “We’d all do the same.”

Holtz smirked, nodding in agreement. “Just say the word, I’ve got tons of unstable radioactive material at hand.”

Erin’s eyes widened. “Holtzmann! What did we say about threatening people with nuclear materials?”

“Something about how showering people with radiation is rude?”

“YES!”

Patty laughed, doubling over and clutching her stomach. 

“What?” Erin asked, exchanging a brief look with Abby. “What’s so funny?”

Patty wiped her eyes, her heart swelling. “Nothin’ I just, I cant help but think of how different that whole experience would have been if I’d had you guys as friends then…” She lifted her beer. “To the best of friends! The Ghostbusters!”

Abby smiled. “I’ll drink to that.”

They all clinked their bottles together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t go anywhere! Abby and Erin are next!

**Author's Note:**

> I’m really sorry if there’s a bit of hetero or guy-bashing in this fic... I just suck at writing hetero relationships so my go-to is to make guys act like dicks. And I figure teenage boys are appropriately dickish already…right? Ugh, I’m just digging myself a deeper and deeper hole here…I’ll stick to lesbian ships in the future.


End file.
